Hope you are all having a Good, Productive Work week. Sorry for not being here. Life has taken over for now. I am trying to not feel overwhelmed but I feel it on my feet and neck(yes, I carry stress on my neck and feet... If Any one knows how to give a good foot massage, I would be Grateful :P?
One of the things I love about life in USA is being able to listen to the National Public Radio(yes, small things make me HAPPY). For the past two days, I have been listening in on one of the programs that is in collaboration with BBC "World have your Say". The topic for the last two days were- Race(its easier for me to listen to something as I do my chores than watch something). Yes, its mostly a Taboo topic. I dont like discussing it either cause for the most part, what I say could be misconstrued or looked upon as somehow my lack of "self-confidence" and I dont like defending my stand either way. Its my perception and thats that, I cant understand why I have to explain or elaborate it.
Its been my experience with taboo subjects - people dont want to talk about it. Although its obvious, most think that if we deny something, it will cease to exist. While this does work for some things(like denying attention to a whining Kid and ignoring him to the point where he is forced to modify behaviour positively to get attention), I dont think it works when it comes to Racism. There is also a sort of Fear of Offending the seemingly presumed "oppressed", of not being Politically correct.
While I do have my own experiences with discrimination in terms of racism, I refuse to let it dictate how I walk through my life. Yes, it is annoying and somethings become difficult because of it but I believe that if I cant walk through it, theres always a way around it if I look hard enough. I have observed different ways in which people cope with it. Some will deny their own heritage, native tongue, Name given to them, traditions, religious observances, culture etc. in the hope that they will belong to the dominant group. Some will become obsessed with rising up in the ladder of Economic Status so no one dares discriminate them with regards to their skin colour. I guess, each has to do what works for them best.
Reality to me is, there is always going to be discrimination of some kind or another, if its not about my skin colour, it could be about my gender or my physical appearance or my accent or what I eat or wear or how I walk or talk or do something or work etc... I do accomodate people when its possible to do so but would I give up all that I am so I could be accepted into the dominant group.. I dont know, I havent been in any drastic situation where I have to. The other face of Reality that I am very aware of is, that no matter what a person's physical attributes and attitudes in life are, it lasts only so long, we all have to die. So I would rather embrace all that I am including my frailities.
Now for the program and the opinions thereoff. Today's question was Does your skin colour define you?
For me- It does and doesnt define me. It would completely depend on the situation I am in. My skin colour is something I am aware off only when I am in a Group that is Pre-dominately White, otherwise, I dont even think about it. Do I act white or a certain way to be accepted? Oh lordy! I hope not. I do speak English slower when I speak to someone who isnt Indian, but it is more to accomodate proper communication. Cause that was my experience for the first year I was in the US, most Americans couldnt understand what I said cause I spoke fast and my accent made it difficult to understand.. so I slowed down, I spell the words sometimes so that they know what I am talking about.. Its not so difficult for me to understand them although most of their Jokes are lost on me (giggling).
One of the Guests said something that I thought was the crux of the issue. That it doesnt matter whether the person of colour actually thinks in terms of their colour, but that they will be forced to think so when the others around them have them boxed because of their colour. I felt that was the deal for most of the coloured folk. Most arent aware that they are dark skinned until someone points out that they are different.
I couldnt find a feed or archive for the program at BBC. But I did find the World have your say Blog. So here you go enjoy the comments.
Peace Always
Rashmi.
